From the studies that you, perhaps, have learned in school, the person credited to be the one who discovered the Pythagorean Theorem is the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. However, there are some who say that this is not so.

If you were to study the history of the theorem, you may see that it may not be Pythagoras after all who discovered the Pythagorean Theorem.

The Early History Accounts of the Theorem

In Northern Europe and Egypt during 2500 BC, there were some accounts pointing to an algebraic discovery of the Pytha gorean triples as expressed by Bartel Leendert van der Waerden. It was used in megalithic monuments during that time which had right triangles with integers as its sides.

There were also written accounts during 2000 and 1786 BC which includes an Egyptian papyrus bearing a Pythagorean triple solution.

During the circa 1750 and 1790 BC, a Mesopotamian tablet also contained many written entries which were similar to Pythagorean triples during Hammurabi the Great’s reign.

India also had some records on the Pythagorean triples during the 2nd century and the 8th century BC.

That was years before Pythagoras (circa 580 BC to 500 BC) was said to have discovered this theorem. But, it was actually five centuries later after Pythagoras lived that the Pythagorean Theorem was attributed to Pythagoras.

The Tale of the Discovery of Pythagoras

It was believed that Pythagoras discovered this theorem when waiting for the tyrannical ruler, Polycrates. While looking at the floor’s square tiling of the palace of Polycrates, Pythagoras thought of this interesting idea: A diagonal line may be used to cut or divide the square, and two right triangles would be produced from the cut sides.

Examining it further, Pythagoras formulated the formula in mind.

A Modern Book Bearing the Answer

A book titled “The History of Mathematics” was written by Roger Cooke. In the pages of the book, Cooke shows that the Babylonians after all may have discovered the theorem years after the discovery of Pythagoras.

To support this belief, Cooke based it on Plato’s dialogue Meno. Cooke’s suggestions depict that the discovery may have been done as an element of fun or practical purpose by someone. And that someone may have thought it as necessary to make a square twice the size of a given square. To do so would result to about four right triangles with sides equal to the center square. It also can show two rectangles equal to the four triangles, and two squares on the bottom or legs of the right triangle. All these things point to the Pythagorean Theorem.

But with all these accounts, the Pythagorean Theorem is still linked to Pythagoras, the one believed by many to be the person who discovered the Pythagorean Theorem. Perhaps, it may be safe to say that although Pythagoras wasn’t the first to discover this, records show that this person may have been the first to prove this theorem.

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Tags: Mathematics

Iron is a very useful element and is well used today. A lot of our modern day conveniences come because of its uses. It has become a backbone for many structures that we construct. It is also a basic material for many of the innovations we now enjoy. We use iron to make steel and other alloys to answer various needs of our every day lives. Because of the many uses of this interesting element, some have wondered just who discovered iron.

Metals of Antiquity

It is not possible for anyone to say who it was or which people exactly where the first to use this element. We just can’t tell who discovered iron since it has been used by many people even from ancient times. Iron is classified along with other seven metals that are dubbed as The Metals of Antiquity. These include gold, copper, silver, lead, tin, iron, and mercury. All these metals were already known to the ancient peoples of Greece, Egypt, Rome, and Mesopotamia.

Early History

It is known that nobody was able to make use of iron before 1500 BC due to the fact that it was really hard to make. It is further known that iron was put to use in Asia. Thus we know that those who discovered iron were from that part of the world. Hittites from West Asia were a particular people who learned how to use this element. Since they found out that iron weapons were far better to use than the bronze ones they used they made iron smelting and forging a secret.

They were able to keep it all a secret until 1100 BC when the Hittite Empire fell apart. When it did the secret of making iron got out to other people. Though the Hittites were the first to make weapons out of it, we may not surely say that they were the ones who discovered iron.

Other Nations

Other than the Hittites, there were other nations that learned how to use iron. The Jews, Philistines, Kushites, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, and Carthaginians all learned how to make and use iron. From 1000 BC unto our present day iron has become the most used metal in the world.

In 800 BC the Aryans invaded the land of India and brought their knowledge of making iron with them. The Chinese only learned how to use it from 700 to 600 BC. Each culture that has learned how to use iron had their own ideas for its different uses. However, we can’t really tell who discovered iron.

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Tags: Elements, Science

Introduction :

A magnet is an object that produces a magnetic field. It attracts certain other objects to it, and repels other magnets Because magnets have been known to man for so long, it is inevitable that legends have formed regarding its discovery. The word “magnet” is from a Greek term meaning “Magnesian rock.”

Legends of the Discovery of Magnets

One story tells how a shepherd named Magnes discovered magnet about 2,000 BC. He was guiding his sheep along the pastures of Magnesia in northern Greece. Now Magnes was carrying a shepherd’s rod with a metal tip, and his shoes had nails in them. He stepped on a big black rock and next thing he knew, both his rod and shoes got stuck on the rock by their metallic parts. Perplexed, the shepherd got out of his shoes and dug up the ground. He found loadstones underneath. Loadstones are naturally magnetic due to a substanc3e known as FE304. The Greeks later renamed the stone magnesia after its founder or the area where it was discovered.

Historical Discovery of Magnet

Even dismissing such stories, it’s still likely the Greeks were among the first to know about magnets. The classical writers Pliny and Lucretius mentioned them. Because of their ability to attract other objects, magnets were thought to be magical. The Greeks and Romans used them to cure diseases, drive away bad spirits and more.

Some even though they could destroy iron-cast ships. Whenever a ship vanished at sea, the Greeks believed it got sucked in by a mountain of iron. In wartime, they used loadstones to try to sink or disarm enemy vessels.

An important discovery about magnets was their ability to orient themselves. If formed like a needle and placed on water, the magnet would consistently face in a north-south axis. This is said to be the origin of the name “loadstone” = “stone that leads.” Realizing the importance of this discovery, the Chinese invented a marine compass some 4,000 years ago.

Modern Discoveries

In modern times, scientists focused on demystifying magnets. Peter Pregrinus made it the subject of his papers in 1269. In 1600 William Gilbert made a major breakthrough when he discovered that Earth itself is one huge magnet. He made other discoveries such as how to make artificial magnets from wrought iron, and how heat can take away artificial magnetism. Later in the 19th century, Hans Christien Oersted and Clerk Maxwell made a connection between electricity and magnets. When a compass is placed near an electric current, the magnetic needle repositions itself. If the compass is moved around the current, the needle adjusts itself accordingly, as if “obeying” the current.

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Tags: Science

Most of us are familiar with the pi. Why wouldn’t we be when it is a staple of the basic math education that we get in high school? But it is safe to assume that most of us are not aware of some important facts about the pi. Familiar as the pi may be to us, questions such as ‘who discovered pi’, ‘how was the value acquired’, ‘why is it a constant’, will leave most of us dumbfounded. Knowing these facts may not be that essential for our everyday living but it won’t hurt as well especially given the fact that the pi is one of the elements that constitute the foundations of mathematics, and therefore of the modern world as well.

Before we go into answering who discovered pi, let’s first tackle a little bit of historical background relevant to its discovery. As early as 1900 BC, geometers from ancient civilizations such as Babylon, India, and Egypt, are already aware of one fundamental property of the circle: that a circle’s circumference is always a little over three times that of its diameter. A more precise value was not available however as each of the civilizations computed pi only within 1% of its actual value.

The individual who can then be said as the one who discovered pi is Archimedes since he is the first one to compute the value of the pi quite accurately. The man who discovered pi did so by comparing the perimeters of two polygons inscribed in a single circle; one is outside the circle and the other inside. The ratio of the bigger polygon’s perimeter with the smaller one’s will then be equivalent to the one between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. Archimedes did this technique to a total of 96 polygons and he got the average ratio, which is 3.14185. The value may not be spot on and only correct up to two decimal places but it is an improvement nonetheless over the computed values that the civilizations before him came up with.

Several individuals followed after Archimedes’ efforts to come up with the value of pi. Mathematicians such as Madhava, Al Kashi, and Ceulen, can be credited as much as Archimedes as people who discovered pi. With each of the said mathematicians computing pi up to tens of decimal places, great strides were made in the quest for the value of the pi.

The men who discovered pi did not only help in pioneering the quest to come up with the correct value of the pi, they contributed greatly to the development of mathematics, whose centrality in modern life will be impossible without the pi.

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Tags: Mathematics, Science